Clark Robertson has been impressing in his short time at Dundee.
The former Aberdeen and Blackpool defender returned to Scottish football last month after nine years away playing in England and, latterly, Israel.
He made his first appearance for the Dark Blues in the friendly victory over Arbroath at the weekend.
Whether he makes a second appearance on Wednesday during Dundee’s pre-season trip in Poland will depend on a hamstring knock picked up at Gayfield.
Despite that little setback, the 30-year-old has impressed his manager in his short time at the club.
“He’s different from when I had him at Aberdeen, he’s a proper man now,” Docherty said about Robertson whom he worked with between 2013 and 2015.
“He was a kid when we were at Aberdeen but a kid with huge potential and huge promise.
“Clark has had a great career down south, he was captain of Portsmouth and has racked up a lot of appearances.
“He is still the old Clarkie, a great boy, but he’s in the kind of mould of Joe Shaughnessy.
“He has matured as a man physically and I can see on the training ground he is taking responsibility and showing leadership.
“Clark has a really impressive CV and he is really driven coming back to Scotland. He is ambitious and I’m really impressed with what I’ve seen from him so far.”
‘Ticks a lot of boxes’
Docherty added: “When he came through at Aberdeen he was more a left-back but now he has matured he is a centre-back.
“He is a robust big character and he ticks a lot of boxes for us.
“We looked at a lot of players in that position and we all came to the decision Clark would fit what we are doing here.
“I’m delighted to have him in the building.”
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